Art of making asphalt



June 12, 1928.l

.www Y E; A. RUDIGIER ART oFuAxING ASPHALT Filed Aug. 19. 1922 Emy/wp A. Fu/@IR Patented June 12, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

'EDWARD A. RUDIGIEB, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR T0 STANDARD OIL DEVELOPMENT. COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

ABT F MAKING ASPHALT.

Application filed August 19, 1922. Serial No. 582,903.

My invention relates to the art of: making asphalt and will be fully understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, which represents a vertical section through one form of apparatus contemplated in the invention. l

In the customary practice, asphalt. is made by prolonged blowing of air .through a body lo of asphaltic oil residuum heated in a still.

This not only ties up expensive still equipment designed primarily for distillation use, but the maintenance costs are high and the output eciency is low.v l5 ln accordance with the present invention, the oxidation is carried on in such manner as to utilize the heat of reaction, and an illustrative form of apparatus which may be employed is shown for example in the 2o drawing, the reference vcharacter 1 designating a tank lagged with heat-insulating material 2, and having an air-pipe system comprising, for example, a manifold 3 and branches 3 therefrom provided with perforations. At the top of the tank is an od-take 4 for volatile matters and residual air, such ofi-take, in the form shown, discharging into the base of a tower 5, which may be empty but preferablf contains a suitable checkerwork or loose ling, at the top of which is aspray-head 6 and thereabove in the stack 'further sprinklers 7 all fed from the water-pump 8 through the pipe 9.

Any usual or desired pump-line connection, as indicated at 15, may be provided for feed and discharge of the tank, the precise detail not being material.

ln operation, heavy asphaltic residuum,

as for example Mexican petroleum which has been reduced in a continuous still battery to the extent desired, for example about 380 F. Flash, is passed while hot, through a cooling coil if necessary, into the tank so as to obtain a charge temperature of about 12W-4:40" F. Air is then admitted 'at a pressure, for instance, of 11-12 lbs. gauge and bubbles out from the perforated pipes and up through the body of oil.

illustration, in one instance where a tank '50 25 `feet in diameter by 30 feet high was used,

As an' supplied by the oxidation reaction itse since as seen, the tank is insulated against transmission of heat from without and loss of heat from within.

With a view to the best quality of product,

it is desirable that care be exercised to maintain aproper rate of air feed throughout the run so as to avoidtemperature extremes thatwould preclude obtaining the desired melting point and penetration for the finished product.

in a suitable heater or exchanger, as indicated at 1 2. Under ordinary conditions, however, this is unnecessary where starting vwith sufficiently vhot oil and where heating of the air is not required, the air can be wholly or partially by-passed from supplyplpe 14 through pipe 18` around the heater 12 The vapors and fumes from the tank are advantageously passed through the tower 5 and are washed by a water spray, the wash If it be desired, thefeed air can be heated water with entrained condensate iiowing down through a hydraulic seal 10 and thence by a pipe 11 to a separator so as to enable recovery of hydrocarbons.

While in describing my invention, l have referred to certain specilic details, it will be understood that these are illustrative and in no sense limitative; nor is the invention to be understood `as dependent upon the accuracy of any theory or reasons suggested in explanation of the advantageous results. On the contrary, the invent-ion is to be regarded as limited only as dened in the following claims, in which it isiny intention to claim all inherent novelty as broadly as the prior art permits.

What I claim is:

1. The im rovement in the art of making asphalt, whlch comprises distilling petroleum down to residuum in reducing stills,

transferng the residuum with atemperature leum down to residuum in reducing stills,

of'around 420 F.,Afrom the reducingstills transferring the residuum while hot to an 10 to a heat insulated container, and blowing unheated insulated container, and mainair through the collected residuum without tainn the temperature' of said residuum 5 applying external heat, to obtain the deat a esired point by blowing air through sired asphaltic characteristics. the residuum.

2. The improvement in the art of making asphalt, which comprises distilling petro- EDWARD A. RUDIGIER. 

